Summer Days

Disclaimer: I don't own anything, oh, and the place in France is made up. So don't ask for directions.

Hermione had not been so relaxed in so long. Despite the fact that it was not summer yet, the sun poured down, and the air shimmered in the heat, the heat of the Mediterranean. Their villa next to the sea was huge, and the fact that the sea was a constant background noise made her happy.

After the first couple of days, they had all settled down. Harry and Ginny were staying together. Calmly, she had assigned Latoya and Sam to a room, causing Latoya to turn furiously red. M.J. and Mike roomed together. Laura, she gave a room for herself. She was staying with Ryan and Tanisha. They had begged her to stay with them. As for Kevyn, he stayed with Draco. The only males working there.

Draco. Whereas all the others had tiptoed around the house with its fine furniture, he seemed not in the least bit perturbed. He didn't go out of his way to handle anything carefully. But she could see that he held everything with an unconscious care.

Even if he was a bastard, if he was a Malfoy, a Mudblood hater, you had to admit it. He had class.

Harry didn't agree.

The two watched each other with an almost indescribable hostility. But three days had passed without fuss. And the beach—it was heavenly, despite their quarrels.

Stretching out of her bed, breakfast already eaten, she changed into her swimsuit, one whole piece, reddish brown—best described as copper. Picking up her matching coloured sarong wrap, pulling it around her hips, and picking up her bag, she stepped outside.

It was a lazy sort of day, the sun pouring down and the sea glittering. Already she could see Ryan and Tanisha, throwing up water. The others were arrayed on the beach as well. Laura was sitting under a sunshade, being teased by Kevyn. Laughing, she spotted a free area. Spreading out her towel, putting on her sunscreen, she put everything on her towel, then discarded the wrap, and ran

Straight into the water. Swimming out to Ryan and Tanisha, she forgot herself and had a great deal of fun and laughter.

It was an hour later when Hermione went out of the water to join the sunbathing workers. Her skin she had drenched in sunscreen and her sunglasses were on. She was enjoying herself, finding a good book in her bag. Stretching herself full length on her towel, enjoying the sand tickling her feet was her idea of content.

She lay undisturbed for a while.

Then she noticed the sand seemed more ticklish. In fact—

She looked at her feet to see Malfoy, lazily lying full length tickling her with a piece of grass. His hair pulled back, he laughed at her. Sitting straight up, her book forgotten, trying to decide if she was angry or amused, she raised an eyebrow.

"What?"

"I should think you have better things to do," she said frostily.

He laughed again. "No, not really. Not if you leave your feet out for tickling."

"You are a relentless tease."

He shrugged, his eyes twinkling. "My dear Hermione, you are wonderful for teasing."

This time she tucked her feet up underneath her. Then she stared at him, still lying on the ground. Staring at the sky.

Then she realized she hadn't seen him in swimming trunks before. He had been at the beach at different times from her. And she couldn't stop her eyes tracing his body. Muscles, muscles, more muscles, and his face—here she stopped. Lounging on the sun drenched beach, he looked exactly like a large cat, maybe a jaguar. No, a golden, tawny lion.

Damn him, he was sexy.

Trying very hard to ignore the fact that she had just been staring at Draco Malfoy, she stretched out with her eyes closed. The sun felt wonderful to her slightly damp skin. The breeze was blowing off the sea. She felt relaxed, contented and rather drowsy. Just lying there with the breeze blowing, and her eyes half open.

Draco, lying on the sand, at Hermione's feet was wondering if she knew how damn distracting she was in that swimsuit. Simple, clean cut lines, with her back out, it suited her perfectly. The colour lent the warmth to Hermione's skin, and it was not revealing . . . nor did it fail to show off every curve in her body. Every curve. Sleek, slender, and with incredibly long legs, he wondered if she had looked like this in the Hogwarts days. If she had, he was an unobservant idiot.

Then again, she probably would not have worn this.

Pity. Lying there, he knew that if Ginny or Harry spotted him now, there was going to be a fuss . . . exactly as he had planned. Meanwhile, he wondered how much fun it would be to kiss all the way up her neck, just to see what she would do.

Looking up, he suddenly noticed Ginny and Harry sitting next to each other. Lucky them, Ginny was pregnant. He sighed. More Weasley/Potters to be brought into the world with a growing hatred of him. Lovely.

There were times when he wondered why he wasted his time. Being a decent person. But . . .

Hermione suddenly was roused from her dream like state when she heard a loud ahem from somewhere near her head.

She sat bolt upright, without knowing why. Standing, looking very disapproving was Harry.

Her heart suddenly began pounding faster, out of nerves. Her expression, cool, calm controlled, was hiding an out of control feeling. Alarm bells were clanging in her head.

Get ready for fireworks while strapped on to the front of a roller coaster.

Glancing at Malfoy, she noticed that he had his chin propped up on his hand, and was looking bored. Blankly, deliberately bored.

"Hermione?" he looked upset. Then he stared at Malfoy, who calmly stared right back at him.

"Move, Malfoy," said Harry. Or rather snarled.

With surprising agility, he was up on his feet. Now standing at his full height, he was taller than Harry, but not by much. The lazy peaceful air suddenly began to crackle with tension.

Harry caught hold of Hermione's arm, and drew her out of earshot of Malfoy. Then he blew up at her.

"What the hell do you think you're doing Hermione? Since when are we friendly with Malfoy?! Answer!"

Hermione suddenly felt a surge of inexplicable anger towards Harry. She was no stupid child.

"Mr. Potter, Mr. Malfoy was doing nothing whatsoever. The most he was doing was sitting, or lying, I really do not know which. And neither do I care." Her voice was her coolest, don't-carish, and most final.

Harry looked at her, furious. Then he stormed back to where Malfoy was standing, arms crossed, looking so distant that she hardly recognized him. Also dangerous. His eyes, which she had thought were grey, were black . . . or so she thought at the time.

"Malfoy, I have a couple of words of warning for you," snarled Harry.

"Fire away," drawled Malfoy.

Harry's voice was low, tense, and furious. "Stay away from us, Ginny, and Hermione. I don't know why she hired you, but stay away from her, or else you'll pay."

He shrugged. "Miss Granger here hired me because I was qualified," his drawl pronounced and cold, "and as for me let's say, harassing, your friend, I think that she can take care of herself. She was the cleverest witch of our year and helped defeat the Dark Lord."

Harry looked even more furious.

"And as for your wife," the typical sneer was back on his face, "I wouldn't dream of teasing her. That's a waste of precious time."

With this, he Apparated, somehow leaving his sneer behind.

Harry looked at Hermione and stormed off to Ginny.

Hermione sat back on her towel. Though Malfoy was a cold blooded bastard, she trusted him. It was as if Harry was questioning her judgment. And what had he been doing? Lying by her feet, not even tickling her anymore. She was appreciative of her friends sticking up for her, but at times it went a little too far. She was a grown woman, and could take care of herself.

Next to her she felt Ryan sit down, and on the other side Tanisha. Ryan was wearing a whole piece swimsuit, too, black, and Tanisha was wearing a red bikini.

"Wow, what was that about?" asked Ryan.

"That was about Malfoy."

"Let me guess: Harry thinks Malfoy shouldn't come within a two metre radius of you."

"Precisely."

They all got up, in unison, and headed back to the villa, and their room. It was about three o' clock. After they rinsed off, dried their hair, and changed, the rest of the evening was theirs.

Somehow, it was amazing how she could not find either Malfoy or Harry, or Ginny. The later could probably explained since she could tell there was a silencing charm on their room. But as for Malfoy . . .

She wanted to apologize. She wanted to tell him that she was sorry about the way Harry had behaved. But in her heart of hearts, on some subconscious level, she really just wanted to see him, to tease him, to annoy him. He was one person, apart from a few people at work who did not judge her.

But it seemed that Malfoy could not be found if he didn't want to be.

Hermione was sick of all this. Of being told what and what not to do. It made no sense, she didn't like it and it was a waste of time. For once she didn't want to have to be perfect. She wanted to be herself.

Unfortunately, this seemed impossible.

At ten o' clock, Hermione was lying on her bed, forgetting most of the annoying day. This was mainly because she, Tanisha, Ryan and Laura were having a sort of sleepover. In her long dull looking nightshirt, she was laughing as Ryan promptly through a pillow at her. Tanisha was laughing, tossing popcorn at them both, and they were acting as undignified as they could be. Laura was lying on her back laughing like a maniac.

Then there was a knock. Hermione sat bolt upright, and they all suddenly remembered that for the past few nights, Kevyn and Malfoy had been taking rounds to check on all the girls.

"Quick," hissed Ryan, "yank on a pair of pants, all."

Checking to see that her friends were decent, and that her hair was presentable, she cracked open the door, her wand to the ready. She saw

Malfoy. And Kevyn.

Both puzzled.

"What the . . .?" summed up Kevyn

Ryan giggled. "Slumber party. Interested?" She opened the door completely. The disheveled, still laughing crew stared back at the men.

Draco stared. "Oh my . . ." his eyes traced them all. She had to admit, they were a miserable sight. Tanisha was sitting up on one of the beds, her baggy nightclothes messy. Laura's pale face was flushed, and her hair mussed. Hermione though was sitting on the bed looking like if they had found her in her office as usual, though all her curly hair was in disarray, her large tee shirt in a mess. But she was so obviously the boss.

"We'd love to ladies," he said, "But can't."

"Tsk, tsk," she said. "Too bad."

She shut the door.

"OK PEOPLE! LET'S PARTY!!!"

Tanisha cranked up the music, and then Ryan flipped into the middle, started to dance. The party was in full blast.

Hermione was happy, elated when they finally went to bed. She knew that she could wake up late. She hadn't had a slumber party for years, and was happy . . . happy, elated, content.

France, so far was good.

But it would get better.